almost hitched: omg two weddings!

I haven’t spoken much on here about my upcoming weddings to Dave (more about the multiple celebrations in a sec), mainly because it has come around so quickly – we are roughly three months out – and secondly because I didn’t have a whole lot to say until now. With the big days so close, it feels like a good time to share and I will be posting a few more times as we get closer.

Today, I want to talk to you guys about why we are having two weddings (yes really!), and a few of the things I have learnt when planning. If you are thinking of having two weddings to accommodate far-away family then hopefully this post will help you decide. It’s totally not as hard as everyone wants you to believe!

A bit of background.

Dave proposed on my birthday last June, and we straight away decided to wait a year for the wedding – this was mainly because we wanted to honeymoon in Europe during their summertime. The second thing we decided is that we were going to have TWO WEDDINGS. Lot’s of people recoil in horror when I tell them this. Some think it sounds super stressful, and others just think I am being a princess. The reason we are doing this is that while we live in Australia near all of Dave’s friends and family, all of mine (besides my lovely Sydney friends) are in the UK. If we are flying to Europe for a honeymoon anyway, why not have a second celebration in London so that all of my loved ones can be included? We did a few sums, and decided that we could make this work if we kept both celebrations pretty low key, which luckily is our style anyway.

First, a word abut budget, as I feel like that is a major cause of stress when it comes to weddings. Now let me be straight up, I am not going to talk about how much we are spending as I think that is a very personal thing, but what I will say is this; you know that sickening number that is apparently the ‘average cost of a wedding’? We are doing two for less than that. It’s totally possible. We are still spending a bit more than originally anticipated, because weddings are crazy, but on the whole we have stuck to our budgets.

The weddings.

Our wedding in Australia is going to be in the Blue Mountains in a gorgeous cabin with the ceremony on site – hopefully outdoors. It will be winter time, so think roaring fireplace, native flowers and lots of delicious food. Roughly 50-60 guests.

The wedding in London will start with a vow renewal ceremony, followed by a journey on a vintage London bus to the reception, which will take place in a cute and colourful pub near where we used to live. Roughly 25 guests.

What we have learnt while planning two weddings.

Be realistic, aka you can’t have everything. This is something that we all practice in everyday life: I would like to eat all the cake but I would also like a toned butt – not realistic. Eat some of the cake and go to the gym. Viola. Easy. The wedding gods (Pinterest) would like you to believe that you not only can have everything, but if you don’t then your wedding is somehow failing. This, quite frankly, is bollocks. When planning two weddings, or even one, being realistic about what you can afford and organise whilst maintaining sanity is so important.
We are having a sit down meal for our wedding in Australia, for us that means a sit down meal is out of budget for London, and that is totally fine. Both weddings are still going to be awesome! Likewise our venue in Australia needs a lot of work from us to decorate beforehand – that’s cool as we live close by and we have hired it from the night before. Plus I enjoy doing that stuff and am actually really looking forward to the decorating part. While we are in London I want to spend as much time as possible with my friends and family, so we have chosen a pub that is colourful and pretty and needs minimal decorations. Realistically we just can’t put the same time and effort into it as we can in Australia, not only because of distance and time but we really want to have a relaxed, stress-free time in London. Accepting that from the beginning has made planning so much easier.

Keep things different. Two weddings, two guest lists, two ceremonies, two dresses, two receptions. Yikes. Our weddings are one week apart, and the last thing we wanted was to feel like we are repeating ourselves. It was also important for us to make sure that the wedding in London was just as special, even though it is coming second.
There are a few ways we have (hopefully!) done this by keeping the style of the days different. Sit down meal vs standing buffet reception, mountains vs city, muted natural colours vs bright summery colours. The other great thing about this is it means in a roundabout way I actually have to make less decisions. Can’t decide between a long and a short dress? No worries, I’ll have one of each thanks! While slightly overwhelming at first, it has been really fun to think of the ways we can make each day special and a reflection of the location and us. I am honestly looking forward to both of them equally.

I’d love to know your thoughts on planning a wedding, did you do something a bit different to the usual? Does it get totally nuts in the last couple of months?? I have the fear!

Over the next few weeks I will be posting about some of the DIYs we have planned, two dresses (!) and talking about wedding stress.